I managed to pick up two Asus 5850s yesterday for crossfire in Currys/PCWorld.

Had to travel half way around London to find two stores that sold them.

It's crazy the lack of technical knowledge the guys in the store have.

Clerk behind the desk:

Me: Have you got a 5850
Clerk: Whats that?
Me: Its a graphics card
Clerk: We dont sell graphics cards
Me: Your a comptuer shop, so you should. Plus your website has the 5850 for £79.97
Clerk: Let me check.
Clerk: Nope don't sell it.
Me: I bought one already from another branch. They said this branch had another. I just want another of the same card for crossfire.
Clerk: If you've got one already why do you need another
Me: I need two for crossfire
Clerk: What is crossfire?
Me: Sigh
Clerk: Let me scan your one.
Clerk: Your right we have one left.

Hands me the card and directs me to the cashier.

Cashier: What is that.
Me: It's a graphics card.
Cashier: What is a graphics card
Me: Improves gaming performance
Cashier: I've been working here 2years and didn't know we sold those things. First time seeing one.

Lucky man though getting hold of two at that price.....In the burbs I haven't got a chance

Click to expand...

Unlucky man.

I got the ASUS "EAH5850 DIRECTCU" version and I'm quite impressed with the build quality of the fan. It's just as quiet as the Accelero L2 Pro that I had on my old 4850s.

Strange thing is though it requires 6+8pin connection, thought this is unusual. My Power supply only has two 6pins. Even the molex converters which came in the box is just two 6pins, yet the card clearly requires 6+8pins. Strangely enough the card still works. should I be worried? Will I get less performance or stability?

I've been monitoring my two 5850s in GPU-Z whilst at near 100% GPU usage.

I've noticed that whilst my main 5850 clocks upto 765Mhz + 1125Mhz, but my secondary 5850 stays downlocked at 157 MHz + 300Mhz. Does this have anything to do with me running my secondary card with 6pin+6pin rather than 6pin+8pin?

Edit: Nevermind. I downloaded the latest version of GPU-Z and both cards clock speeds showing up fine.